Budget: Random facts on rats, roads and Rock fever

Here are 20 intriguing facts from the 2014-15 Budget book (Estimates of Revenue & Expenditure)

1. Rough passage: Marine and Ports is expecting to have 15% of all ferry services to be interrupted in 2014-15. They are expecting 10% of runs to be interrupted because of mechanical issues, 3% because of bad weather and 2% because of BIU meetings or staff shortages

2. Rat patrol: There is an expected increase in the number of employees at Vector Control — from 21 to 24, a 14.14% increase. They help residents to control rodents and mosquitoes on their premises and are responsible for the general control of vermin in public places. Their targets are tocatch/kill 1,000 fewer mosquitos but 500 more rodents than then forecast for 2013-14

3. Unhealthy outlook: The Department of Health’s Community Health Administration is expecting customers to be less satisfied in 2014-15 than in 2013-14. It is targeting a 70% satisfaction level for this coming year compared to a forecasted satisfaction level of 75% for 2013-14

4. Baby-makers: Veterinary Services expects to do 120 artificial inseminations this fiscal year

6. Twice as good: The amount of money spent on Bermuda’s ‘gifted and talented students’ will double from $204,000 to $408,000

7. Spin cycle: The Department of Communications has a target of producing 50 positive news stories per month

8. They were bugged: Government said of the 1.55m plants inspected this past fiscal year, about 5% were infested

9. Big savings: The lifeguard service provided 91 rescues in 2012-13 and is targeting 58 rescues for 2014-15.

10. Chips ahoy: Government intends to supply 200 truckloads of woodchips to the Botanical Gardens and schools in 2014-15

11. Zoo fee: The number of visitors to the Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo was forecast to be 90,000 in 2013-14 and it is targeting 72,000 visitors for 2014-15. If both of those are true, the average cost of operating per visitor will rise from $31 to $40

12. Bumpy ride: Percentage of roads that have not been resurfaced in the last 20 years? 30%

13. Curb crawl: Government is expecting to build 200 feet of sidewalk in 2014-15

14. Getting together: The Centre is expected to have 20,400 attendees in 2014-15 while St George’s Community Centre is targeting 31,00 and Sandy’s Community Centre 20,000

15. Army fatigue: One out of every 10 people drafted for the Regiment are medically unfit for service

16. Mail drop: The number of employees working at the Post Office is expected to decrease by 23 from 199 to 176. The amount of mail processed is expected to decrease from 7.1 million to 6.8 million in 2014-15 (all of it business mail)

17. Seven-up: It takes the Fire Service an average of seven minutes to respond to an emergency call

18. Faulty powers: The Department of Consumer Affairs expects to have 390 product-recall investigations in 2014-15

20. Check you later: A total of 106 foreign nationals were asked to leave Bermuda in 2012-13 and the Department of Immigration is targeting 60 that they will have to ask to leave in 2014-15. The Department expects to conduct 1,396 investigations in 2014-15.